Teaching them a lesson

Walking towards the door through a half-silent tavern was interesting. It seems like my desire to stay under the radar was met by the harsh reality of some people being complete morons. When I finally made it out, the four guys were already waiting for me, standing in a semi-circle. Some people inside the tavern moved to the windows to watch the fight. Elora stepped out of the doors and leaned against the wall, probably getting ready to step in and save me if the brutes managed to overpower me. Right, like that’s going to happen. The guys were big, but not close to being Owen’s size. I was taller than two of them and more muscular than three. I doubt they can fight on Owen’s level and if they can’t, then this fight will be a swift and easy affair.

“Said goodbye to your girl, boy? When we are done with you, you will be eating liquid food for the next several months. We will have fun with that beauty in the meantime,” the guy that first approached our table, seemingly their leader or the spokesperson for their group, said in a mocking tone.

“You better have some money saved because you will be out of work for some time. I will try to not go overboard though,” I reply.

The leader scowls and takes a step forward. “We will see about that.”

The other three follow his lead. The first attacker lunged forward, his massive fist aimed at my jaw. With a smooth sidestep, I evaded the blow, my trained reflexes guiding me effortlessly through the fight. In response, I delivered a devastating strike to his midsection. The power of my strike seemed to take all the air from his lungs and he collapsed to the ground with a quiet grunt of pain. He remained on the ground.

As the second attacker charged forward, I met him head-on. His fist was flying fast towards my face, but, with a smooth movement of my arm, I moved to deflect his strike easily to the side with the back of my hand. I counterattack and place a strong uppercut right in the guy’s chin. He flies backward and falls to the ground ****.

Meanwhile, the other two assailants closed in on both sides and lunged at me at the same time. With a swift spin, I dispatched one attacker with a well-placed kick to the chest, sending him falling to the ground. In the same motion, I grabbed hold of the second assailant's arm, using his momentum to throw him off balance, and slammed him against the pavement, knocking him out.

The first guy, their leader, who I took down first, stood up on unsteady legs. “You bitch. You will pay for this.”

With a scream, he runs at me. From the evil grin on his face, I noticed that he was about to do something underhanded. A moment later I saw him pull out a short knife from behind his back. He thrusts his knife in the direction of my stomach. From a distance away, I hear people gasp, but my attention is on the knife and the next move I am going to make. Waiting till his hand got closer, I caught his wrist and made a sideswipe with my leg, toppling him over. As he was starting to fall down, I rotated him by the wrist so that he would fall face down. He hit the ground with a thud. The knife went flying from his hand. Dealing the final blow, I wrung his hand behind his back with a swift jerk, dislocating his shoulder. The guy was wailing in pain under my hold. I heard footsteps approaching. Looking in the direction of the noise, I saw four city guards approaching us fast.

“What is going on here?” one of them asks.

Elora approaches them while I am still holding the guy, groaning pathetically below me, down. “These four attacked my companion. He defended himself. There is a whole tavern of people who can testify that they started the fight first.”

“I can attest to that,” Sayuri says when she steps out of the doors. “They came in here and started causing trouble, harassing my staff and other patrons. Zandor here stood up to them. They ended up ganging up on him and attacking him. He took them all down.”

The guards look at the three **** guys lying on the ground and one groaning under me. “Understood. We will take them into custody. Someone will come by tomorrow to take the statement.”

The guards pick up the **** guys and the one I was holding and take them away. I walked up to Elora who was still standing by the wall.

“Guess the next round is on me,” she says with a grin. I can swear I saw her lick her lips looking me up and down as I approached her.

“Yeah, I could go for a cold one after stretching so nicely,” I smirk.

Elora chuckles and we make our way back into the tavern. We are met with loud applause and cheers from the people inside. I wave back at the people with a little triumphant smile.

Sayuri approaches me. “Next round is on the house. That was some good fighting out there, Zandor.”

The lustful gaze with which she looked at me didn’t escape me.

“Appreciate it, Sayuri,” I tell her with a wink.

Elora rolls her eyes and drags me back to our table. The evening goes on.

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